The St. Johns herald., 1887-12-15
TIE asDa1EEQUEsT1oE IN ENGLAND
A Review If ConviVial Customs in Early Times, and Legislative Restrictions on the Sale of Alcoholic BeVerages

A Review If ConviviaI Customs in Early
 Times, and Legislative Restrictions on
 the Sale of Alcoholic Beverages.
 An English exchange remarks that the drink question has been difficult prob lem from the dawn Of English history to the present day.
 The earlier pages of our annals record that the Britons wers frugal in their meals, wh ch consisted ch ely of milk and ve..ison. Their ordinary beverage was Ter. They occasionally induiged in erIn nted drink made from barley, honey or apples. and free use of it never failed to make them il[natur d and ready to quarrel.
 During the Roman rule in this country w.ne and other intoxicating drinhs were ireel. cons mel The bush, which was Tor ages the sign of a. inn, is trace to the Romans. ani to them alsJ We ore the Ia. Is nal custom of toasting or health CIin .d.g.
 The saxon period was one in which in- te al erAnce p eva.led to fearful extent. It Is stated on reliable authority that even he clergy. spent days and nights in Lranke. mes and debauchery.
 King Edgar must be cre1ited with do- ing noDle work in the reformation of his cJuntrymen from the baueful effects of strvng drink, It is remarked by the F ". Dr. French that the King nearly entIcipate,l by thousand years the le s- islatlOn p oposed by the United King dom Alliance. Acting on the advice of Dunstan,s says Strut, "he put down m my a houses, suffering on one to ex st in village or small town; and he also farther ordained that pins or nails should be fastened into drinking GU or ho-as at stated distances, so that whoever should drink beyond these marks at one draught should be liable o severe punishment"
 Archbishop Dunstan was equally zeal ous III chec6ing intemperance in the caure s We make 4 few extracts as fol- lows from code drawn up by him:
 "Ler no drinking be allowed in the church.
 "Let men be very temperate at church wakrs and pray earnestly. and suffer there no or hiking or uncleaniiness.
 'fLet priests beware of drunkenness and Je diEgent ill warning aud correct 1 others ill this matter.
 [" Let no riest be an ale scop nor in ai:y wise act the gleeman."
 The Danes drank to a great excess, anu dur ng the time their kings occupied the thron of England drunkenness cas: a blight over the land.
 The Norman conquest brought about many important changes in social life. SobrIcty was not the least of the virtues of the Sornans.
 C5ming down to Tudor times, we find an almo similar statute passed to the string nJ regulation of Edgar. In the last yrar of the reign of Edward VI it was enacted tha "none shall keep a tavern for retailing wines unl ss li- censeI; and that only in cities, towns cor ora @, burgs, post towns or market towns or in the towns Of Gravesend, S.ttin-bou ne, Tuxfori and Ba shot, on the forfeiture Of ten pounds. And the shall be only taverHs for retailing wine iE every city or town rept London, which may have .orty taverns; in York, eight taverns in Norwich, four; in Vest mihst'r three; in Bristol, six; n Lin coin. three; in Hull, four; m Shrews- bury, ttreo; in Glouce ter, four; in WestchesJer (ChesteI). four; in Here ford, thie.; n Southampton, three; in Canterbury. four; in Ipswich. three; in Winchester. three: in Oxford. three; in Cambn ge, four; in Colchester, three, and in Newcastle-on-Tyne, four"
 It is chronlcled that this legislation was the means of reducing the consump- ton of Intoxicating drink,